Delhi High Court Asks For The Government's Views On WhatsApp's Privacy Policy

The popular messaging application has decided to share some of its consumer data with its parent company Facebook.

A plea was submitted in the Delhi high court to challenge WhatsApp's decision the share its data with Facebook. In response to that, the high court has sought the government's views on the matter.

A bench headed by the chief justice of the Delhi high court G. Rohini has asked for the response of the government as well as Telecom Regulatory Authority Of India (TRAI) on the WhatsApp-Facebook data sharing issue.

As per the Livemint's report, the PIL was filed by two students Karmanya Singh Sareen and Shreya Sethi under the violation of the fundamental rights by sharing the confidential data.

"The privacy policy is in stark contrast to the privacy policy existing from July 7, 2012. In its first revised modification on August 25, 2016, the Respondents [WhatsApp, Facebook Inc. and Facebook India Online Pvt. Ltd.] have introduced this policy, which severely compromises the rights of its users and makes the privacy rights of users completely vulnerable," the plea says.

The policy change came into the picture when on 25 August WhatsApp published a blog announcing that it plans to partially integrate the services of the app with Facebook for friend suggestions, better ad targeting, and product improvement.

However, the company gave the existing users a 30-day window to opt-out of the data sharing. Sadly, even if you opt out of the data-sharing, WhatsApp will continue to share some of its data with Facebook for spam filtering, handling abuse, and the betterment of the product.

The plea also highlighted that privacy and security were one of the WhatsApp's glorifying features but the new policy hampers it. The hearing will take place on 14 September. WhatsApp's policy is likely to be enforced from 25 September